Nancy Madden

Cofounder and President

Nancy Madden

Nancy A. Madden is president and co-founder of the Success for All Foundation, which develops, researches and disseminates educational programs to increase achievement, particularly for disadvantaged students. She is a professor at the School of Education’s Center for Research and Reform in Education.

An expert in literacy and instruction, she is the author or co-author of many articles and books on cooperative learning, mainstreaming and the education of disadvantaged students, including Effective Programs for Students at Risk (Allyn & Bacon, 1989) andTwo Million Children: Success for All (Corwin, 2009). Her current research interests include practices to increase social-emotional learning and use of interactive whiteboard technology and electronic response devices to increase student success.

She graduated from Reed College in 1973, and received her PhD in clinical psychology from American University in 1980. From 1980 to 1998, she was a research scientist at the Center for Research on the Education of Students Placed at Risk at Johns Hopkins University, where she directed the development of the reading, writing, language arts and mathematics elements of Success for All, a comprehensive school-reform program.

"Since implementing Success for All at my school and being the only school in Scotland at the moment delivering Success for All, we have all seen great success with all our children. Expectations of the children have risen and the high quality teaching and reading that the children are exposed to has all resulted in children who are more confident learners and are achieving great results at their individual levels."

David Hayes-MacLeodHeadteacher at South Lodge Primary School, Invergordon

"We were thrilled to find ourselves as the top school for reading and maths in the area. An achievement we never would have dreamed possible and certainly has never been managed before Success for All was implemented in our school! Thank you for your transformative support!"

Susan ManziHeadteacher at East Wickham Primary School, Kent

"Quality first teaching is now evident across the school. Behaviour is now good and teamwork between children in English is a strength. Pace of lessons has improved as well as teacher subject knowledge and expectations."

Unity Schools Partnership

"Classrooms are language-rich environments that has helped to improve language acquisition and development."

Unity Schools Partnership

"I have been working alongside the team at SFA and the approaches for the best part of 10 years now. In all cases without exception, the quality of advice, support and guidance has been outstanding."

John HalliwellNational Leader in Education, Executive Headteacher & Director of Leadership Development at STEP Academy Trust

"As a result of the work we have done in SfA, pupils are more able to discuss with understanding the books they have read, the teaching of reading has become focussed and explicit and the data shows that more pupils are achieving the expected level for their age compared with a year ago."

Joanne RussellHeadteacher at Badsley Primary School, Rotherham

"Our school has been fortunate to work alongside the Success For All team for a number of years. The children have been enthused, are eager to learn and are highly motivated to succeed and help each other which has transferred into all areas of our curriculum. In addition, the impact on our results has fully justified the time and financial commitment we have made. It has been a great success!"

Julie CorneliusHeadteacher at William Cassidi C of E Primary School

"Our data shows rapid and sustained progress. Children are proud of their learning and talk about how it has improved without prompting."

Unity Schools Partnership

"“The children's ability to concentrate and read and write at pace has improved significantly since last year. The amount of work they are producing along with the quality of it has increased dramatically. We have introduced Co-operative Learning and behaviour management techniques from SFA into all other subjects, and the children enjoy the consistency and common expectations. This, coupled with our complete commitment to the program and the high competency of our teachers has led to these fantastic results."